The step will enhance the level of national security, the statement says

Petro Poroshenko

KIEV, April 25. /TASS/. The Ukrainian state agency for cinematography has banned eight Russian films and 26 series, the agency's press service said on Monday.

The statement said the step "will enhance the level of national security".

On April 21, Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko signed a decree to ban all Russian films made after January 1, 2014.

Last year, the Ukrainian Culture Ministry introduced a blacklist of 83 Russian and foreign actors, filmmakers, singers and other culture figures, whose presence in the country is undesirable, as they "threaten national security."

The Ukrainian state agency for cinematography can ban any films involving actors from the list.

The list includes French and Hollywood movie stars Gerard Depardieu and Steven Seagal, titled US-born boxer Roy Jones Jr., who was granted the Russian citizenship, Fred Durst, best known as founder and frontman of the Limp Bizkit band, Russian Oscar-winning filmmaker Nikita Mikhalkov, and some Russian pop singers.